HOUSTON _ Rougned Odor homered twice, including a go-ahead, two-run shot in the eighth inning to lead the Rangers past the Astros, 4-2, Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park. Texas goes for the sweep Wednesday night.
Rangers starter Nick Martinez allowed two solo homers _ one to George Springer to lead off the bottom of the first and one to Carlos Correa to lead off the fourth. Martinez left trailing 2-1 after six innings. Jose Leclerc took over and threw a scoreless seventh. Keone Kela started the eighth and had two outs and two on (after an infield single and a walk) before Matt Bush came in to face Jose Altuve. Bush got Altuve swinging on a curve ball out of the zone to end the inning and preserve the 4 -2 lead. Bush pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the four-out save, his eighth. Leclerc earned the win, his first in the majors.
The Rangers got on the board with a run in the fifth to pull to within 2-1. Jonathan Lucroy and Odor started the inning with opposite-field singles to left. Jurickson Profar reached to load the bases on a fielder's choice to Correa at shortstop who tried to step on second before throwing to first in hopes of turning a double play. With two outs, Shin-Soo Choo worked a run-scoring walk to bring home Lucroy. Elvis Andrus popped out to second to leave the bases loaded. Odor homered to start the seventh inning to tie it at 2-2. Odor's two-run, opposite-field homer in the eighth gave the Rangers a 4-2 lead. Lucroy singled ahead of the homer with two outs.
Odor collected three hits in a game for the first time in 2017. He did it 16 times in 2016. He also hit two homers for the first time since Opening Day. The last Rangers player to hit two homers in seventh inning or later to either tie of give Texas the lead was Nelson Cruz on Sept. 10, 2010 against the Yankees. Odor becomes the third Rangers second baseman with three seasons of 10 or more homers, joining Ian Kinsler (seven seasons) and Julio Franco (three).
